Szczypiń: The textbook for the Polish minority in Lithuania is to be adapted

“The result of the work of the expert group is adapted to the Lithuanian reality textbook for educating Polish children in Lithuania”, said Jadwiga Mariola Szczypiń, director of the Education Development Center, who yesterday signed the Polish-Lithuanian declaration on cooperation in the field of education between the Education Development Center (ORE) in the Republic of Poland and the Center for Education Development in the Republic of Lithuania.

The meeting of the Polish minority education team in the Republic of Lithuania and the Lithuanian minority in the Republic of Poland has been continuing in Vilnius since Thursday.

“On 31 August, Lithuania’s Minister of Education and Anna Zalewska, Poland’s Minister of National Education, met in Vilnius. At the meeting were presented some findings, e.g the signing of a declaration of cooperation between the Center for Education Development in Vilnius and the Center for Education Development in Warsaw. Such a declaration was signed yesterday “- said Jadwiga Mariola Szczypiń.

The declaration includes specific tasks for a 20-person team that consists of 10 experts from the Polish side and 10 from the Lithuanian. “The basic goal of this declaration is an in-depth analysis of the education of the Lithuanian minority in Poland and the Polish minority in Lithuania. Therefore, we have been working since yesterday on expected by both ministers information derived from the analysis of this situation “, Szczypiń explained.

The analysis is to be prepared by December this year and later will be presented to the Ministries of Education in Poland and Lithuania. On the basis of this analysis must be developed the recommendations for education of national minorities in both countries.
There were also issues regarding the preparation of the textbook and methodology for the Polish minority in Lithuania. “Today, we decided that we will create a five-person team of experts who will develop the scope of adaptation of textbooks existing on the Polish market. We assume that the scope of adaptation will be ready at the beginning of December. Further work will take place in cooperation with a publishing house in Poland, and adapted to the Lithuanian reality textbook for education at the first educational level will be the final result “, explained director of the Education Development Center.

Moreover, the director pointed out that there is a good atmosphere in the expert group. “In addition, the prospect of wider cooperation between the two centers in the exchange of experience, in the improvement of teachers, in the development of methodological help for teachers, is also emerging. Such details have just been discussed today,” Szczypiń said.